Where To Get Happiness

“When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.” – Ecclesiastes 7:14.

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There is an Eastern tale of a wealthy king who ruled a vast domain and lived in a magnificent palace. In spite of all his authority, power and extensive possessions, he was very unhappy.

Among the servants in his court there was a renowned sage whose counsel the king frequently asked in times of difficulty and crisis. This sage was summoned to the king’s presence. The monarch asked him how to get rid of his anxiety and depression of spirits, how he might be really happy, for he was sick in body and mind.

The sage replied, “There is but one cure for the king. Your Majesty must sleep one night in the shirt of a happy man.”

Messengers were dispatched throughout the realm to search for a man who was truly happy. But everyone who was approached had some cause for misery, something that robbed them of true and complete happiness.

At last they found a man, a poor beggar, who sat smiling by the roadside and, when they asked him if he were really happy and had no sorrows, he confessed that he was a truly happy man.

Then they told him what they wanted. The king must sleep one night in the shirt of a happy man and had given them a large sum of money to procure such a shirt. Would he sell them his shirt that the king might wear it?

The beggar burst into uncontrollable laughter and replied, “I am sorry, I cannot oblige the king. I haven’t a shirt on my back.”

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There are two ways of being rich. One is to have all you want and the other is to be satisfied with what you have. It’s impossible for any of us to go through life without either increasing or diminishing somebody’s happiness.

A small house will hold as much happiness as a big house and that is because there are two things that contribute to happiness: What we can do without and what we can do with.

‘The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song I will praise him.’ – Psalm 28:7.

If you cannot find happiness along the way, you will not find it at the end of the road.

Happiness is not something you have in your hands; it is something you carry in your heart.

Blessed Day!